Update: as of June 9, this closure has been lifted, per Eric Krause, JeffCo OS Ranger.

Photo reconfiguration: Ron Keller.

The two areas Jefferson County Open Space intends to close in Clear Creek Canyon, shown on the attached maps, encompass the active eagle nests. If the Clear Creek eagles continue to nest in the active nests, these areas will remain closed from February 1 through July 31. If the eagles choose different nesting sites in 2016, the closures will be adjusted accordingly to protect those eagles during their breeding season.

Beginning Sunday, March 22, 2015 at 8 p.m., US 6 will be closed between US 40 and SH 119 to accommodate planned work on the Peaks to Plains Trail project. The highway will reopen Saturday, March 28 at 5 p.m. This closure limits access to I-70 from Golden; access to Black Hawk and Central City from Golden will remain open.

As always, contact the Public Information Team at or p2ptrail@publicinfoteam.com for more information. You can also check out the project blog at peaks2plains.wordpress.com.

About This WorkThis six-day closure will allow crews to install an underpass for the Clear Creek County section of the trail just east of Tunnel 5. This will enable the trail to safely cross US 6 and follow the Creek and join up with the Jefferson County portion of the trail. The underpass is a critical connector for the new, 4-mile trail, and will be 8 feet wide, 10 feet tall and 126 feet long.

Crews will work in two, 12-hour shifts to complete the work on time. In order to complete this work, guardrail, asphalt and bridge slabs will be removed. Then, crews will dig into the ground and set a large, pre-constructed concrete culvert into place. Dirt and other excavated materials will then be backfilled, or replaced.

For Your SafetyThe highway will be closed to traffic for the safety of the traveling public. Motorists are encouraged to plan alternate routes to I-70 from Golden in advance of travel. Once again, travel to Black Hawk and Central City will not be impacted.

This construction work will require crews to dig a hole in the ground that is deeper than the deep end of a swimming pool. Heavy equipment and machinery will be needed in order to complete the underpass. There will be no room to safely navigate the traveling public around the work, making it necessary to completely close the road.

All local emergency service providers have been notified of the closure, and signs will be posted to notify local motorists.

In case of inclement weather, backup dates for this work will be Sunday, March 29, at 8 p.m. through Saturday, April 4, at 5 p.m.

The images enclosed depict a map of the construction zone, and what the finished product will look like.

A rendering of the finished product.

A map showing the construction zone.

This information is a public crowdsourcing effort between the Access Fund,
and Mountain Project.You should confirm closures, restrictions, and/or related dates.

Description

In the summer of 1993, Alan Nelson and I add five routes to this East facing crag to provide a shady place to climb. The five routes here were simul-drilled in about one day, so the guilt for any bad bolts can be shared by both of us. It is unfortunate that the crag sees very little action since the routes turned out to be fun and well protected. The rock had some friable surface in 1993 but this has cleaned up nicely. Numbering begins on the left with Free Enterprise (#1). Climbing runs from 5.10 to 5.12a with interesting moves through the roofs.

Eds. since this original post, additional routes have been done in this area. The original crag is now known as Upper Capitalist Crag and the lower/new crag is now known as Lower Capitalist Crag. To avoid duplication, this has been reorganized.

Getting There

Capitalist Crag is located on the East side of tunnel 3 and the easiest approach is to park as you would for the Wall of the '90s and hike the 300 yards along the road. The obvious wall with a roof in the middle is Upper Capitalist Crag.

Approach as for Upper Capitalist, but instead of going uphill to the crag, go down the broken hill to the southeast. Lunchmoney is located roughly hundred yards upstream from Upper Capitalist Crag. The chains are obvious from this point. There is a belay bolt on the ledge at the start of the climb. Climb up the steep face, pull through weakness in the roof to easy ledge system. The last three clips on the upper wall is the crux on a beautiful smooth flake. Rap 100 feet to ground. ...[more]Browse More Classics in CO

I agree with Richard on the quality of the routes here. I climbed 3 of them yesterday and found them to be quite nice. The place still needs some cleaning (9 years later...) and this supports the fact that very few people climb here.

One note of caution!!!! There are a set of bolts at the top of the two most Western routes, a 5.10a and a nice 5.10c, the bolts are very far apart (due to the poor nature of the rock inbetween them I am assuming.) I would suggest rappeling off of these instead of being lowered, the forces are too great. If you intend on having an extended topropping session just bring a couple of slings and some lockers to decrease the angle.

The anchors Chris refers to now have chains. Thanks to whomever put those on, they were definitely needed.

Yesterday I went to climb Lunchmoney and tried the two 10s - Hours for Dollars and Get Rich. I was a bit apprehensive at first, thinking I should not bother with them since they only had one star in the guide. However, I would agree with the above comments. These are decent routes, and with the addition of Lunchmoney this may become a more popular area. It looks like there may be a few more decent lines here.

I discovered Capitalist Crag yesterday evening. A good place to climb that is out of the shade. Lunch Money was fun along with a route directly left of it. I dislodged several small rocks while climbing here, as the rock is dirty/rotten in places but worthy of another return.

Climbed here yesterday, agree with the above comments, these routes are much better than they're getting credit for. Long and sustained, high quality rock with a good setting. I didn't come across too much loose rock, the routes seem to be cleaning up nicely.

What is wrong with you? Seriously? Stealing someone's project draws? Really? I mean, stealing is bad enough, but stealing within our community of climbers who leave stuff up, in good faith, for anyone to use? Are you that poor? Or are you just that big a dick?

You deserve the absolute worst in life. I hope you get it.

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To everyone else: Don't leave draws here, or on Anarchy, as it's easy for conniving, worthless lowlifes to rap in and steal your gear.